


What It Means To Fit In

by Sabrinanikkol



Category: Brave (2012), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Rise of The Brave Tangled Dragons - Fandom, Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-07 04:52:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1115734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sabrinanikkol/pseuds/Sabrinanikkol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written to a submitted prompt:</p>
<p>Jack tries to act like he doesn't like Rapunzel in front of his snobby Slytherin friends when he secretly has a major crush on her. One day she overhears him calling her names.....</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Calling Names

**Author's Note:**

> This is a response to a prompt on my writing blog (http://ideastrappedinmymind.tumblr.com/) which you can also submit prompts to if you wish!
> 
> I have no beta so please forgive the spelling/grammar mistakes!

"What are you guys talking about?" Jack interrupts the group of chattering Slytherins as he takes a seat in the Great Hall and starts piling his plate with food.

"How Hogwarts has lowered it’s standards so much in the past couple of years." One of the 3rd years supplies helpfully, only to earn a glare from the brunet male who had been speaking before. 

"More specifically how much lowly wizards and witches have been admitted lately." Flynn clarifies, barely glancing in Jack’s direction. 

"Oh yeah? Like who?" Jack probes, curious. He is used to this kind of talk from his fellow Slytherins, well those who consider themselves above the rest of the students. It surprised him when the group of popular Slytherins, all children of the purest and most powerful wizard bloodlines allowed him into their clique. He figures it’s because of his willingness to disobey rules -most of the pranks they pull involve him taking the blame somehow-, but he isn’t about to turn down their friendship, not when he has a hard enough time making friends with people as it is. 

It’s a struggle to stay in their good graces, especially Flynn’s, but to Jack it is worth it. For once he isn’t an outcast, for once he isn’t invisible, for once people are jealous of him instead of the other way around. 

"That psycho redhead for one." Killer replies - Jack isn’t completely sure if Killer is his real name or not, but it’s what everyone calls him so he goes along with it-. 

"The Gryffindor chick with way too much hair? She’s a bitch." Jack agrees easily. Whatever-her-name-is has had a rivalry with him since 1st year, so he doesn’t feel guilty in the slightest for speaking his mind about her. She is a bitch, too loud and annoying for him to put up with her. 

"Not just her, but the freaky blonde she always hangs out with." Another boy pipes up. 

"The one with a shit-ton of hair?" Someone asks. 

"Yeah, who is always running around barefoot. She’s a Ravenclaw, so it’s no surprise she is crazy."

Jack shifts uncomfortably in his seat, refraining from commenting anymore. Merida is one thing, but the petite blonde is something else. She trips over her hair a lot, and he usually stops to help her recollect her books. She is almost always barefoot, but she once confided in him when she caught him staring at her feet that it was because people always stole her shoes. 

_"Here." Jack held out a notebook to the flustered girl as she scrambled to collect her belongings after tripping once again._

_"Thanks." She murmured, taking the soft leather book from him and hugging it against her chest, puffing herself up as she straightened._

_"Why don’t you just cut your hair if you trip over it so much?" He blurted out before he could stop himself, only to immediately cover his mouth. God he was such an idiot!_

_She only smiled in response, “I love my hair, it’s something that belongs to me and only me. Nobody can take it away from me, at least, not anymore.” She added the last part quietly and he got the feeling he wasn’t supposed to hear it._

_"Oh." He wasn’t expecting an answer, much less one as thoughtful as that. Awkward now, his gaze fell to the floor to spot her bare feet peeking out from under her robes._

_"My house-members steal them." She explained, noticing his gaze. She didn’t seem self-conscious about it, but there was a sadness to her voice that made him want to beat up every person who had ever hurt her. "They say my hair is long enough that I can just use it to swing around on, so I don’t need shoes." She flushed and tugged nervously at her hair, "But I don’t mind, I like my hair."_

_"I like it too." He told her automatically, only realizing after the words left his lips that it was true._

_"Really?" Her lips split into a brilliant smile that made his heart flutter. He would give anything to cause her to smile like that at him again._

_He opened his mouth to reply that yes, yes he does love her hair when her redheaded guard dog appeared out of nowhere._

_"Punzie! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!"_

_"Sorry Mer, I got sidetracked." The blonde smiled apologetically at Jack before turning to her friend who was glaring daggers in his direction. "Is Hiccup waiting for us?"_

_"Yeah, he is outside, let’s go." The Gryffindor replied, sneering in Jack’s direction before grabbing her arm and tugging the Ravenclaw away from him._

Whenever he gets a chance to talk to her, that stupid redhead always appears to snap at him and shoo him away. 

Sensing his discomfort at the direction of the conversation, like a cat cornering a mouse, Flynn pounces on his weakness, “What do you think of her, Frost?”

"Who?" Jack blinks back into reality to find all of his friends staring at him expectantly. 

"The blonde chick." Flynn spells out, as if he was stupid. 

Flushing, Jacking shrugs, “I- I don’t know much about her.”

"You’ve got to have some opinion, right? I mean the girl is in half of your classes." The older Slytherin presses. 

"I-"

"Or are you just nervous to say anything because you have a crush on her?" There is an evil glint in his eye now. 

"I do not!" Jack protests, shaking his head rapidly. 

"Oh yeah? Prove that you aren’t head over heels with her then! You sure seem like a besotted lover boy whenever you see her, I can practically see your eyes glaze over." 

"I don’t like her!" He exclaims, furious and anxious. 

"Give it up, Jack, it’s so obvious you are in love with her." Flynn smirks. 

He explodes. 

"Why the hell would I have a crush on such a freak? She’s bloody bat shit crazy! What kind of sane witch would run around barefoot all the time with mile-long hair? She’s nut and on top of that she isn’t even a pureblood, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was a dirty mudblood!"

Silence falls over the entire dining hall after his outburst, all chatter halts.

In the silence, the sound of a bench being shoves back and someone tripping over themselves to get up echoes loudly through the hall. 

The blood drains out of Jack’s face as Rapunzel shakily collects her belongings in the impending quiet and practically scampers out of the hall, only to be follows seconds later by a redheaded Gryffindor and brunet Hufflepuff calling after her. 

"Punzie, don’t listen to him! He just a pure-blooded, douche who can only feel better about himself by insulting those he knows are better than he will ever be." Merida loud voice booms throughout the dining hall as she chases after the blonde, who pauses at the exit long enough to glance in his direction, green eye brimming with unshed tears. Her two friends quickly usher her out of the hall, and once they are gone the noise in the room slowly returns to normal. 

Flynn turns to grin widely at Jack, “I guess I was wrong, you really don’t give a single shit about her.” He slaps him on the back, “Good on you, mate, you really are one of us.”

Jack is finally one of them, something he has always dreamed of. If this is everything he ever wanted, why does he suddenly hate himself more than ever before?


	2. Apologies Are Hard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to popular demand of my readers, I have created a Part 2!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, if you want to submit any prompts to me, my writing blog is http://ideastrappedinmymind.tumblr.com/
> 
> And, once again, I do not have a beta, so I apologize for any spelling/grammar mistakes!

It’s been two weeks since the scene in the Great Hall and Jack is not sulking. He does not wait around outside of his classes for a certain Ravenclaw to leave so he might happen to have the chance to talk to her. He isn’t disappointed by the fact he never has a moment alone with her. He doesn’t care that every time he sees a specific redhead, she glares at him so hard he is certain that if looks could kill, he’d be dead a thousand times over. He doesn’t care. He really doesn’t.

Which is what he is telling himself as he paces at the base of the staircase leading to Ravenclaw tower. He isn’t here to see a girl with long blonde hair, he is here to… 

Damn it he misses her. 

They have never really spoken for more than a few pleasant sentences when they run into each other in the halls, yet he misses like his arm has been severed from his body. She doesn’t smile at him in their shared classes anymore, doesn’t laugh under her breath at his sly remarks, doesn’t casually wait for him at the door to say goodbye after class. 

He hurt her, deeply, and he regrets it more than anything he has ever done. 

"You are the biggest jerk in the history of the universe." He signs under his breath, clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides. He has been hovering around the Ravenclaw tower for the past several hours, but the blonde has yet to make an appearance. He is starting to get some strange looks, but he could honestly care less. 

Just when he turns his back to the staircase, planning to give up and try to seek her out tomorrow instead, a large crash followed by the thudding of something heavy falling causes him to spin around. 

"Oh ow." None other than Rapunzel lays sprawled out on the base of the stairs, bare feet poking out from under her robes, long hair tangled around her legs. 

Jack springs into action, momentarily forgetting the reason that brought him here in the first place, “Are you okay?” He asks, kneeling at her side and checking her arms for bruises or cuts. 

"I’m fine, it happens all the time. I was in a hurry and I’m not the best with stairs- oh." She cuts off when their eyes meet and the realization of who she is talking to floods her cheeks with an embarrassed flush of red.

"Hi." He mumbles, running a hand through his hair and glancing away, suddenly very uncomfortable. What had he been planning on saying in the first place? Sorry for calling you a mudblood and freak in from of the entire school? I was just trying to impress my friends who are all jerks but I need in order to fit in with my house at your sake? He is a complete and utter idiot. 

"Hi… Umm, would you mind…?" She makes a motion with her hands and he stares at her blankly for several moments before blushing a deep red. 

"Oh, right!" He springs to his feet then jerkily offers his hand, "Would you, umm?" Why is he stepping over his tongue all of the sudden? He has always been nervous around her before, but never like this. It feels like they are strangers. And it’s his fault. 

She stares at his hand and for a terrifying second he thinks she might not take it, might reject him completely and leave him standing at the foot of the stairs and even bigger idiot than before. But she doesn’t, she puts her small hand in his own, letting him pull her to her feet, and he feels worse for thinking so lowly of her. 

Rapunzel is a lot of things, but cruel or uncaring are definitely not her. She might be mad at him, might be disappoint in him, might even hate him, but she would never be rude to him. That’s just the kind of person she is, and he hates himself even more for hurting her. 

"Thanks." She murmurs, tugging her hand from his grip the second she is standing to brush off her robes. 

"No problem." He replies, not able to meet her eyes. How is he supposed to apologize for what he did? "Ummm, where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"Oh!" She gasps and starts to move away from him, "I was supposed to meet Merida and Hiccup by the lake twenty minutes ago, but I got held up. I really need to go, I’ll see you around though!" She waves and starts to hurry away, but he chases after her. 

"I’ll walk with you, I’m heading there anyways." He lies, desperate to be around her for a few minutes long, to give himself time to apologize. 

"You are?" Her voice is full of skepticism, but she doesn’t tell him to go away. 

"Yeah." He confirms with a sharp nod of his head, cringing at how desperate he must have just sounded.

"Are you sure you are okay with being see walking with a freak like me?"

Ow, that hurt, but he deserves it. He winces and averts his gaze. “Rapunzel, look, I shouldn’t ha-“

"Rapunzel, there you are!" 

"Merida!" The Ravenclaw jumps as if she is being caught doing something forbidden. Then again, she might be, she is talking to him after all. 

"Hic and I got tired of waiting so we decided to look for-" Merida cuts off when she catches sight of Jack at the blonde’s side. "What is he doing here?" Her voice is as cold as ice. 

"Umm.." Rapunzel stumbles over her words, trying to think of an explanation, but she doesn’t really know what he is doing either. 

"I was talking with Rapunzel." Jack interjects, suddenly a little bolder. Fighting with Merida is easy, normal, familiar, the opposite of his awkward conversation with Rapunzel. 

"Well she doesn’t need to hear anything you have to say." The redhead glares and loops her arm through her friend’s. 

"I’ll see you around, Jack." Rapunzel doesn’t fight her hold and lets herself be tugged along behind the Gryffindor. 

"Wait!" He isn’t about to let her get away again. If he does, he has a feeling he will never be able to talk to her as more than a simple classmate again. 

"She doesn’t want to talk to you, Frosty. Go back to your friends." Merida sneers. 

Jack opens his mouth to retort but is cut off by a voice behind him. “What do we have here? Are the mudblood and her friends bothering you, Jack?” Flynn’s heavy hand lands on his shoulder, holding him down and anchoring him to the pack of Slytherins who have materialize from seemingly nowhere. 

"Nothing, Rider, we were just leaving." Hiccup, a timid Hufflepuff Jack recognizes as the third person in Rapunzel’s trio, speaks up for the first time. 

"Is that right, Jack? Nothing is going on? I could have sworn it looked like you were actually trying to talk to these freaks, but if you weren’t then everything is cool." Flynn smirks at the younger Slytherin. 

He could lie. He could assure his peers that nothing was going on and everything would go back to how it was. He’d still have his group of friends. His eyes flicker to Rapunzel who is staring down at her feet, not meeting his gaze but instead concentrating on her big toe, which she had stubbed when she tripped down the stairs. Stubbed because her housemates had stolen her shoes because they thought she was a freak. 

Anger burns up instead of him, red hot and giving him the courage to stand up a little straighter. 

"Actually, Flynn, I was going to beg Rapunzel’s forgiveness for being a douche, then ask if she would be generous enough to go out to lunch with me sometime." Jack forces himself to look straight at Flynn as he speaks, not glancing at the blonde to judge her reaction to his words.

"You better be joking." There is a dangerous glint in the older boy’s eye. 

Last chance. He could back out, blow it off as a joke and still be accepted. 

"I’m not." 

"I knew I was right about you, Frost. You’re nothing but a lowly half-blooded wizard who will never fit in anywhere. You disgust me." Flynn slams hard into Jack’s shoulder as he pushes passed, making Jack stumble slightly before regaining his balance. 

Three pairs of eyes stare at him, but he can’t bring himself to see their reactions. He could have just made a horrible, terrible mistake. He will never be accepted by his housemates again after that: Flynn will turn them all against him for sure. He turned down the only chance he had for fitting in, for having friends, for not being alone, fo-

"Aren’t you coming, Jack?"

Rapunzel’s voice, soft and sweet and directed at him. 

He finally turns to look at the three and finds the blonde’s hand reached out in offering. 

"You forgive me? Even though I was the biggest jerk in the universe?"

She smiles at him, “Of course I do.”

"Only because she is the sweetest and kindest person in the world. I won’t forgive you that easily." Merida butts in.

"We were going to have lunch by the lake. Hiccup always sneaks too much food out of the kitchen, so there will be plenty." Rapunzel continues as if she was ever interrupted. 

"Punz! Shh! No one is supposed to know about that!" The brunet protests, flushing fiercely. 

"It’s cool, dude, I don’t have anyone else to tell. You’re secret is safe with me." Jack assures him, offering a tentative smile. 

"Thanks. We better hurry back before someone decides our picnic looks appetizing enough to steal." Hiccup reminds them all. Just like that, the former trio, now group of four, heads out to the lake. 

Conversation is awkward with Merida giving off a tense vibe towards Jack, despite both Rapunzel and Hiccup’s best attempts an defusing then tension. 

"I still hate you." Merida finally announces when the group reaches the picnic stop. 

"And I still hate you." Jack states matter-of-factly. 

"Oh calm down you two and eat some pudding." Rapunzel grumbles, tugging them both down to sit. 

"Yes ma’am."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Please comment or submit me prompts to my writing blog if you want to read more!


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